Search This Blog

Lost in Smyrna

Turkey: A 2000-Mile Road Trip, Part 3

Lost in Smyrna

“Izmir or Smyrna is very much like San Francisco, California,” our guide announced as we approached Izmir. Still reeling from a long ride and talk about politics, I thought that he was making a comparison in the context of politics, that being of a liberal city. The obvious similarity in topography did not register immediately until we arrived in the city where I saw homes and buildings on the hillsides, ships and an expanse of sea. Izmir is hilly and bounded by shoreline (forty miles of shoreline, according to our guide). I was excited when our guide mentioned that the boardwalk and pathways are within easy access from our hotel. I wanted to go for a long walk after sitting on the bus for hours.

After settling into my hotel, I headed down for a long walk. Two blocks later, I passed an elegant and charming café called Mado. Seduced by the display of ice cream, macaroons and pastries, I went inside and ordered ice cream. Since it was rather late for a long walk, I sat down for kahve (my caffeine fix) after my ice cream instead.

The following day, I went for a walk late in the afternoon and stumbled upon an amusement park full of families out on the town with their children. Neither familiar nor foreign, it was nonetheless odd: What were these well-dressed kids, men and women in designer clothes doing at the park, I thought. Older women covered to their heads, in their black chador holding on to the kids. I saw wreaths and wreaths of flowers (the sort of flower arrangement used in funeral in the US). Then the bride and groom emerged from a limousine. A few yards later, I saw another wedding event. I could only assume that April is the month for weddings in Turkey for earlier that day, I saw wreaths at the Hilton and noticed that there was a big wedding there. I did not stay at the Hilton, but used the hotel towering logo as my landmark for finding my way through the city.

I continued to walk through a vine-canopied trail when I realized I had walked far enough but saw no sign of the ocean or the boardwalk. I asked a woman in jogging outfit how to get to the boardwalk; she just shrugged off, she did not speak any English. I then asked a young looking couple, but they did not speak English either. I finally ran into a young woman who tried to listen to me and look at my hand gestures as I described the boardwalk...sea...water as if I were playing a charade. She answered in the same manner with her hands pointing to the left, then right and straight ahead. After wandering through the streets for about an hour, I came upon a lively corner, a swirl of taxis. It was the heart of the city center. I probably had ‘TOURIST’ written all over me because a not-so-clean-looking dude approached and talked to me in English. He said that he studied and lived in the US and now the owner of the coffee shop nearby. He offered me to try their coffee (yeah right, I thought).

The boardwalk was full of young people. Almost every inch of the ledge was occupied, but I found a space to sit and rest my tired feet, and look over the water. I sat by a young woman who bought fresh little round green fruits sprinkled with salt. I asked her what they were. She asked the man sitting next to her how to say the word in English. He didn’t know it either. She pulled her smart-phone out, looked the translation up and said with smile, “PLUM.”

I got up to explore the boardwalk area when I stumbled across four of my tour mates. They offered me a place to sit. We were talking, trying to get to know more about each other when suddenly I heard a loud bang and saw a smoke seemingly coming from the car, about three blocks away. Then, I saw young men marching towards our direction, hollering and chanting.

“Oh My God! A violent rally, let's get out of here!" I exclaimed. “This must be the thing that my friends and family warned me about and told me that it's not really safe to go to Turkey,” I thought.

As it turned out, they were young men wearing their soccer team’s color, celebrating their teams winning the game the night before. A police car escorted them. I felt stupid.

We only stayed in Izmir for two nights, not enough to make much of an impression of the city and its culture. My introduction to the city was the 360-degree view or the Wikipedia version of its 3500 years of history as told by our guide. And of course, the Greek connection. It’s believed that Homer, the Greek poet and author of the great epic ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’ was born there.

EPHESUS

We drove down the olive green valley, bounded by distant bluish mountain ranges and green hills on our way to Turkey’s great wonder: EPHESUS. We spotted traces of ancient past high up the green hills as we neared the city. The main attraction is the Temple of Artemis, built in honor of Artemis (also called Diana), one of the maiden goddesses of Olympus. The first temple was built in 800BC; destroyed in 7th century, reconstructed, destroyed (burned to the ground by Herostratus) destroyed, and rebuilt after the death of Alexander the Great.

While the remnants of stone and marble in the ruins of the city of Troy and Pergamum appeared to have been left on the ground, in Ephesus the pieces appeared to have been picked up and reassembled. I saw it more defined from an architectural perspective. It truly evokes an otherworldly mystery: as the remnants of an ancient civilization.

Ephesus draws more visitors due to its proximity to the port city of Kusadasi and Izmir and the two nearby attractions: The House of the Virgin Mary and the Church of Saint John. So it was a busy day for us listening to our guide’s explanations about the different parts of the complex while waiting our turn to pose for pictures in front an interesting part of the complex.

The speckled of spring flowers was a great diversion while waiting for the crowd to clear so I could take photos of the library, the communal toilets and other parts of the complex without the people.

The library...the most popular and photograph part of the complex

The fountain building was donated by Tiberius Claudius Aristion and his wife between 102-114AD in honor of Artemis of Ephesus and Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD).

Comments

Post a Comment

NEW POSTS

I've been consuming a lot of bad news to stay up-to-date on this pandemic and it has taken its toll on my mental health. Yet, in the midst of all the bad news, we see lots of motivational posts talking about taking this time to have faith, recharge, reset, and stay positive including a fake letter claiming to share Bill Gates’ thoughts on the coronavirus crisis. The so-called ‘open letter’ that was circulating on social media claimed to show that Bill Gates believes there is a ‘spiritual purpose behind everything that happens.”

I know that there’s a lot of misinformation out there including the US president touting the mainstream media as fake news. I just find it ironic that the real fake news like John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” and cartoonish editorials like “A Closer Look” by Seth Meyers open my eyes to the honest truth. One take away for me is that this health crisis exposes the good, the bad, and the ugly like our dishonest leaders, weak health system, inequality in America…

The Road to BelgradeDo you like the Chinese Highway? asked our guide. We were on a bus ride from Sofia to Belgrade and had just crossed the Bulgarian/Serbian border. Our guide tried to explain the Chinese connection in order to give us some background of Serbia's complex geopolitical history. The airstrike by NATO in the late 1990s destroyed a portion of transportation infrastructure and industrial facilities in Serbia and fueled an anti-Western sentiment. Serbia looked to the east and tried to maintain an alliance with Russia and China. China invested in the infrastructure of Serbia and became a great ally in the Kosovo dispute, one of the issues being negotiated over Serbia's acceptance into the European Union (another complex issue, but worthy of a mention because it kind of answer our question why the process of going through the Serbian border took longer.)

The bus ride was lovely, with a stretch of green flatlands and rolling hills and mountains. It was an exhilarat…

POPULAR POSTS

The Great Pyramid of GizaWho said you can’t climb the Great Pyramid? Well, you can go inside the Great Pyramid and climb more than two hundred very narrow steps to see the spot where Khufu, the most powerful ruler of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, was interred for all eternity. I paid an extra 360 EGP for the experience or so I could claim I climbed the Great Pyramid. Seriously, I wanted to make the most of my visit to explore the last surviving wonder of the ancient world.

At 146.5 meters (481 feet), the Great Pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for nearly 4,000 years. Constructed between c. 2580–2560 BC, it was covered by limestone casing stones. It was impressive to see the beauty of the structure from the outside and to hear our guide talked about the astronomical and engineering principles behind the structure. For example, the sides of the pyramid are precisely aligned to the cardinal points of the compass. The triangular shape entrance, which is no longer accessi…

I consider myself blessed by the many beautiful religious places I’ve
seen in my life - the Vatican, Jerusalem, and the Wailing Wall, the temples in Kathmandu, the Hassan II Mosque in Morocco, the Blue Mosque in Turkey, Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon and Bagan's more than 2000 temples, the Ling Yin Soul Retreat Temple in China - now there’s a new
addition to the list: Rila Monastery and my new way of seeing things. WhenTurkish
Airlines changed my connecting flights to Sofia, Bulgaria to a much earlier time that no
one could not possibly make, I rebooked my flight to an earlier
date.It gave me a chance to explore the
city on my own before joining a group tour to the Balkans.I had another stroke of luck when out of the blue, I received an email from a travel buddy from my North African past two weeks before my trip.She happened to live and teach at Sofia
University, so she gave me a list of things to see and do in Bulgaria.

Dr. Beach named Hapuna Beach as one of the best beaches in America. With sugary white sand stretching for half a mile, Hapuna Beach is best for beach volleyball and other forms of recreation. And with clear water and rock-free bottom, its best for swimming, boogie boarding and body surfing. But for our friend's BF it was best for watching the sunset. So he took us there late in the afternoon.

After setting up our tent, J went snorkeling. E followed him, and they ended up swimming and chasing the waves. I did swim for a few minutes, but for me, it was about chasing sun-rays, waves, and sunset with my camera. I started taking pictures as soon the sun made its way into the horizon, built its color intensity, and until it faded.

I was able to capture J & E as he splashed her or they splashed each other playfully and embraced as a single silhouette against the fading sun.

But my favorite moment was when my 'Mr. Cool’ slipped quietly into the shimmering waters in his surfboard t…